


Quiproquo

by V (deepsix)



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-07-22
Updated: 2002-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-04 19:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepsix/pseuds/V
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quiproquo: a comic misunderstanding between two characters often resulting in tragedy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiproquo

Oliver had always believed that when Marcus said, "I love you," he'd meant, "I'll never betray you."

It only made sense, then, that Oliver would be wrong.

*

Oliver thought of war as a permanent kind of thing, with stark divisions and cold calculations by competent people, people who knew what they wanted and how to get it and what was needed to win. War was a distant thing, something people only whispered about when he was young, something they said they hoped never came again, something Oliver never deserved to witness.

So Oliver should have been surprised to be proven wrong, to hear Marcus say, "My loyalties don't lie with you anymore." But he wasn't, because it was Marcus, and Marcus could change everything, and did.

*

"Sometimes," Marcus would whisper, lips pressed hot against Oliver's skin, "sometimes I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for you." And Oliver would breathe in the quiet in the dark, and memorize the maps scrawled upon Marcus' body, and know exactly what he meant.

In the morning, Marcus will crawl out from behind their tangled curtain of linen and throw it all away, and Oliver will wonder when life became worth so little.

*

There was a time when Oliver could not distinguish between fantasy and reality, dreaming and waking, because they all ran together; they were one and same.

There was a time when the boundaries between skin and body and spirit and mind were indistinct and blurred, and Oliver did not know where he ended and Marcus began. He reached out and touched and didn't know who felt the sensation. He breathed out and said I-love-you and didn't know who meant the words.

There was a time, but not anymore.

*

"This is a bad idea," Marcus had said, but he hadn't meant it for any of the reasons Oliver had come up with.

"This is a bad idea," Oliver had said, because he'd thought someone would find out, someone would ruin them, someone anyone everyone but him, but him or Marcus. "This is a bad idea," Oliver had said, because he hadn't thought he could keep the secret.

"This is a bad idea," Marcus had said, and Oliver had nodded, but Marcus had meant that he hadn't thought he could keep from falling in love.

*

In the end, it's not going to matter what Marcus says or what Marcus means, and whether or not Oliver believes him. It won't matter who says which words and who hears which meaning, because they will all be senseless, all wrong.

It won't matter if Marcus says, "I love you," or, "I'm just doing the right thing," because Oliver won't believe him, anyway. He'll learn not to.


End file.
